of houses, or a row of trees: the Hong merchants were so called from their stores or warehouses being built in a row. All transactions with them are concluded by word of mouth, without any papers or writings; but a portion of the money is paid down, which is considered as binding the contract. Instances are known of the Hong merchants having bargained for the sale of tea before its arrival, and receiving the usual per centage; and in no instance have they been known to fail of their contract, though the price of tea may have risen considerably before the time of its delivery. In their hometrade, however, the Chinese are much less scrupulous. The legal rate of interest is three per cent. a month; but as this is much more than a person can profitably give for the use of money, it is rarely that it will bring more than one per cent. per month.

The foreign trade is conducted in the English language, which many of the Chinese in Canton can speak, after a fashion. Chinese sailors will sometimes come to England or America as stewards, and pick up a little English. On their return home, some of them will open a school, and teach their pupils a few English words by rote; for they cannot write, nor even read, the language. Their English is a mere jargon. They cannot make the sound of r, not having it in their language: and other sounds are very defective; for instance, the word "business" they will pronounce pijness. They speak their English, too, with the Chinese idiom: they will say, "The cow give very few milk."

Tea forms about five-sixths of their export trade: the remainder is chiefly silk, cassia, drugs, vermilion, fancywares, &c. The drain of precious metals from China is greater than from any other country.

Of cotton they import large quantities from India: very little from America. Metals are also largely imported. American lead is sold in China cheaper than they can get it from their own mines. Pearls are used by the ladies in China to a greater extent than in any other country in the world. They import annually about 250,000,000 of them. Furs are brought from Siberia: the fur-trade from this country has entirely ceased. There is a bounty on the importation of

rice; and in some years as much as 12,000,000 pounds are imported. Two-thirds of the foreign trade of China are in the hands of the English.

They now manufacture many articles which they formerly used to import, especially glass. They make very good mirrors, the silvering of which is equal to ours; but the glass is too thin. Prussian-blue was once imported in large quantities; but a Chinese sailor who was shipwrecked abroad, being employed for a time in a factory where this article was made, became acquainted with the process, and on his return home commenced the manufacture of it there, and the Chinese now make all they use. They export large quantities of vermilion, which they manufacture from imported quicksilver.

It is not likely that the exports of China will much increase, except tea and silk. There is probably no other country so large which furnishes so few materials to manufacture articles for exportation.

AN ARGUMENT A PRIORI TO PROVE THE
UNITY AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD.

BY THE REV. MOSES LOWMAN.

(Concluded from page 363.)

PROPOSITION XI.

Matter is not a Necessary, but a Contingent Being. By Matter, I mean, a Body extended, solid, divisible, and moveable by certain stated Laws. The Proposition may be, therefore, otherways thus stated: If a Body is given, subject to the stated Mechanical Laws of Motion, that Body, so subject to those Mechanical Laws, must be a Contingent, and cannot be a Necessary Being.

I concern not myself here, whether it has been proved, or whether it is in fact, an essential Property of matter, that it is subject to the Mechanical Laws of Motion; it is sufficient to my Argument, to prove it of Matter, according to the Definition I give of it, for that will prove it of all Matter to which that Definition will agree.

406 ARGUMENT TO PROVE THE UNITY AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD.

Now there is one Property necessary or essential to Matter, or all Bodies subject to the mechanical Laws of Motion, which is not improperly called by Mathematicians, Materia Inertia, or the Vis Inertia, which we may call the Inactivity of Matter. By it is meant, that there is in all Bodies a resistance to every other Body, that would change the State in which they are, either of Rest or Motion; and that this is ever in proportion to the quantities of Matter such Bodies contain; so that Bodies at rest would continue in rest, till put in motion by some other Bodies, with a Force superior to the resistance of the Body at rest; and Bodies in Motion would continue their Motion, until stopped by a Force superior to their resistance. This Impulse, Force, or Action, communicated to, and exercised upon every Body, in order to change its present state, either of Rest or Motion, is properly called by Mathematicians, a Vis Impressa, or a Force communicated.

Now if a Body is given, of which such Vis Inertiæ, or Inactivity, is an essential Property, as it must be of all Bodies subject to the Laws of Motion, this must be a contingent Being; for it depends upon some other Being, for all Motion, Action, and Power of action whatsoever; neither of which it has of itself, but each must be communicated by a Vis Impressa, or be received from the Active Power of Another.

Therefore it must be contingent, and cannot be necessary, as Things contingent depend upon necessary Being for their Being, and all qualities and powers arising from it, by Corollary of Proposition the third, and necessary Existence can no ways depend upon contingent Existence.

Besides, on supposition there is such a being as is subject to the mechanical laws of motion, it cannot be a necessary being.

For there is a vis inertiæ, or inactivity, in such a being that it must rest, until it shall be moved by another; and when moved cannot rest until it shall be stopped by another; and moves just with the celerity or swiftness communicated to it, by the force of active power or another; such Being is not properly an Agent, least of all a free Agent, it only obeys the Power of Another, and is moved by it, without any choice of

its own; therefore it cannot be that one necessary existent Being which is a free Agent, by Proposition the tenth.

Therefore [it] cannot be a NECESSARY Being, as there is but one necessary Being, by Proposition the sixth.

Therefore [it] must be a contingent Being, as all possible existence is either necessary or contingent, by Proposition the second; which was to be proved.

SCHOLIUM.

This is a demonstration as to all such Matter, in whole and in part, of which such Vis Inertia is a necessary or essential property. That is, in Fact and Experience, it is a Demonstration as to all parts of Matter known to us, all of which are uniformly subject to the Mechanical Laws of Motion, which is as demonstrable as the Powers of a Balance or a Wheel.

And this seems a good reason why we should account it an essential Property of all Matter whatsoever, in Whole and in Part, according to Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, (Reg. 3,) which is this, That the Qualities of Bodies which cannot be increased or diminished, and which belong to all Bodies on which we can make experiments, are to be taken for the Qualities of all Bodies; which is the same thing with an essential Property of Body or Matter.

PROPOSITION XII.

Creation is possible.

For contingent Existence is possible, by Proposition the ninth.

All contingent Existence must depend upon necessary Existence, by Corollary of Proposition the third.

Otherways it would be an effect without a Cause, contrary to Axiom first.

Therefore contingent Existence must receive its Being from necessary Existence; that is, it must be created by it. But contingent Existence is possible, therefore Creation is possible; which was to be proved.

Corollary.

On supposition of the actual Existence of Matter, Creation is actual.

For Matter is a contingent being, by Proposition eleventh. Contingent Being must receive its Existence from necessary Being, by Corollary of Proposition the third; that is, it must be created by it.

Therefore on Supposition, [that] Matter doth actually exist, Creation must be also actual.

HEATHENISM ALWAYS THE SAME.

FALSEHOOD AND IMPOSTURE.

[OUR readers will recollect the story of "Bel and the Dragon," in the Apocrypha. They will perhaps recollect, too, that in the course of the last year we compiled, in one or two papers, some instances of the impostures connected with false religions of various kinds. We have just met with an additional illustration, which not only strikingly illustrates the general subject, but will also serve to explain why God, in his adorable providence, permitted his religion of peaceful argument and persuasion to be introduced into certain warlike nations by force. The following narrative will show how little effect mere argument had on the ferocious heathen warriors of the north. We shall not be misunderstood. No Christian nation has a right to employ such means; but we are viewing that providential administration which has to deal with human agency. What there is wrong in it, belongs to the agents themselves, and they alone are chargeable with it. What we admire is, the wise and benevolent direction given to the ordinary course of human affairs. Man may be condemned for his wrath; but, the wrath existing, God may turn it to His praise. At first, these Northmen would understand as little of the true God, as they did of their former idols; but, as we have said before, the truth was admitted. Heathenism never can be better. Its only movements are those of decay and corruption. Truth is expansive, and wherever it exists, there is at least a possibility that, sooner or later, the